Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu stressed at the 5th Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit on Tuesday that, amid profound global shifts, Hong Kong remains the nexus for the world’s financial leadership.
This year’s theme “Rethinking the Playbook” reflects a reality that long-held market assumptions are being tested and that strategies which once delivered results no longer guarantee success, Lee noted.
He pointed to geopolitical crosscurrents, blockchain and tokenization rebuilding the core infrastructure of finance, while artificial intelligence is reshaping productivity and labor markets and competition across every sector and every economy.
Re-examine Conventions
Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man also mentioned at the summit that the world has faced an increase in military conflicts in recent years, changes in trade policy, supply chain restructuring, rising public debt, active efforts by various places to suppress inflation, and a constantly changing technological environment including AI, yet the global financial system has continued to remain sound.
He said it is now time to re-examine whether the conventions that were well known and followed in the past are still effective, and that there is a need to pay closer attention to potential threats and what is lacking in the market, as well as how to respond to risks and attacks that have accumulated in the market. This will provide a better opportunity to avoid or reduce harm, so as to protect investors and create value.
HK's First Five-Year Plan Gives Certainty
Lee highlighted that Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan gives market certainty, which sets out directions to strengthen Hong Kong's status as an international financial hub, a global offshore yuan business hub, an international asset and wealth management center, and an international risk management center.
He added that Hong Kong's value proposition under "one country, two systems" remains intact, citing the vitality of the common law system, the free flow of people, goods, capital and ideas, a free market with no tariffs, a simple and low tax regime, world-class professional services and connectivity to the Chinese mainland and the world.
Lee noted Hong Kong topped last year's global initial public offering ranked second globally and raised US$50 billion (HK$390 billion) in IPOs in the first nine months of 2026. The city also remains the leading offshore yuan hub, processing about 75 per cent of global offshore yuan payments, with deposits of about 1.3 trillion yuan (HK$1.53 trillion) at the end of July.
Additionally, Lee said Hong Kong became the world's largest cross-boundary wealth management center for the first time in May. Assets under management surged 20 per cent year-on-year last year to a record US$270 billion.
New Growth Frontiers
He flagged new frontiers: gold trading, with the Gold Central Clearing and Settlement System launching in the first quarter of next year; fintech, home to over 1,400 companies including eight digital banks and 12 licensed virtual-asset trading platforms; and sustainable finance, where Hong Kong issued the world's largest digital bond.
Lee also invited investors to partner in developing the Northern Metropolis, which occupies one-third of Hong Kong's land area and sits next to Shenzhen, into an innovation, technology and talent hub.
Meanwhile, He Lifeng, vice premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, outlined at the summit several concrete directions for the future, including fully leveraging the advantages of “one country, two systems” to maintain a free and open economic environment, further strengthening Hong Kong’s role as an international financial center, and using finance more effectively to support broader economic and social development, including the Northern Metropolis and emerging industries.
He reaffirmed that the Central Government will continue to provide strong policy support and institutional safeguards to help Hong Kong maintain long-term prosperity and stability while contributing more fully to national development.
